Hal Owen

Re: Looking for NEW words of transformation: (SHAZAM, Thunder! Thunder!...) I didn't have time to read the entire thread right now, but I do have a suggestion. Hyper (pause) Active! As in 'Hyper' will now become 'active'. But also 'hyperactive'. Hal Owen.

Re: Robotics in the Marvel Universe You know, I don't know how badly Marvel has twisted things since the things I have read, but I have to cast another vote for Arcade. I was just reading the reprint of Uncanny X-Men #197 in Marvel Essentials, and in that issue Kitty and Collosus are kidnapped by Arcade. They are told that Dr. Doom is out to kill Arcade, and that they have to save him or their loved ones will be killed. The plot hinges around the idea that shortly after they get started, Kitty goes back to watch Arcade, while replacing herself with one of Arcade's robots. Colossus never knows the difference. And this is a guy who is in the Danger Room every day, knows that Arcade is up to something, and is totally wary of some kind of trap. Plus, they seem to stress the idea that Arcade built these X-robots himself. Not to mention Dr. Doom robots, giant transforming train robots that turn into battle monsters, robot hunter-seeker drones, etc. I also think it would offer a cool 'out' if things go badly. I can even imagine a scenario where Arcade figures out that someone is kidnapping the greatest robot engineers and manages to take the place of one of the less powerful ones just out of ego. Then, when the big mind-meld occurs, Ultron will be left with just enough of Arcade's insanity that he won't just snuff the heroes outright, he will want to toy with them for a while. This sounds pretty good, when does the game start and how do I get there? Hal Owen.

Re: Bypassing Armor that has Activation rolls It is possible that someone else suggested this already, but why not just use the Concealment rules? They may seem a bit harsh, but if you are foolish enough to go into combat wearing armor that only protects part of you, when people are shooting at you, you really should expect to get hit. The Concealment rules are: Head and Shoulders exposed, -4 to hit. (about equal to 14 or less Activation) Half exposed, -2 to hit. (about equal to 11 or less Activation) Now to mitigate this somewhat, I would say that, unless the armor is visibly and obviously there in some places, and not there in others, you would need some type of appropriate skill to pull this off. Armorsmith SS : Force Fields PS : Powered Armor Design something. I wouldn't allow every Viper agent with a Blaster to be able to do this. But, on the other hand, if you go into battle with Dr. Destroyer, with a freakin' HOLE in your armor, you should expect that part of your body to get vaporized! I have always found the idea of Armor with Activation rather insane. I know that, due to the limitations of our current technology, military and law enforcement people are not fully covered, but in most genres we are a bit beyond what is currently available. If a normal human were actually going into battle against a known super, anything less than full coverage would be suicidal. After the first few 'special response teams' came home with pieces melted off, there would either be mandatory full coverage armor of some sort, or normal humans would flat out refuse to willingly fight supers. I know that in other genres partial coverage might be the only realistic way to go, but again, if you are walking into a full-on firefight with automatic weapons, then you are either going to stay behind hard cover (buildings, etc.) or you can expect to catch a bullet. Also, for the Supers genre, I would allow "full coverage" Armor that didn't look like full coverage, and just have the SFX be that they 'always managed to position their armor in the way of the attack.' Sort of like Captain America always gets his shield in front of attacks. I would buy that as full coverage Armor with the SFX of 'incredible skill and experience' in using his shield. Just my opinion, Hal Owen.

Re: Naked Modifier Cost. How does this work, and does it make sense? I haven't checked the thread lately, but I think the poster was headed down the same path I was so recently on. If it doesn't look like they figured it out, I may post a link to this thread. Thanks again.

Re: Naked Modifier Cost. How does this work, and does it make sense?

Re: Naked Modifier Cost. How does this work, and does it make sense? Thanks to ghost-angel and John Desmarais. That makes perfect sense. I knew there was something I was missing, I just could not see what it was. So why aren't there Naked Limitations? Or is that something that I don't really want to know, like the exact ingredients of sausage? Hal Owen

Re: Naked Modifier Cost. How does this work, and does it make sense? Thanks for the reply. I understand that the Naked Modifier is not buying the DEX itself, just a modifier on the DEX. But, since the modifier in question is a "Limitation" overall, in that it costs END, and twice the END, but only when the Power is activated, shouldn't the point cost be negative rather than positive? For what may be a clearer example: Let's say I bought 45 points of Life Support, and bought the exact same Naked Modifier. Life Support does not normally cost END. The net result of the Naked Modifier is that it will now cost me 8 END every time I activate my Life Support, when it would have not cost me any END before. The cost of this is 6 CP. I am just trying to figure out how and why this works the way it does. Under what circumstances does it make sense to use a Naked Modifier? Why would it cost points to Limit a Power? I don't mean to be dense or argumentative, I just don't understand it.

Okay, this is a carryover from a question someone asked on the Hero Designer board, but it got me to thinking. Let's say that I want to buy some Extra Dexterity for some kind of mystical Martial Artist. He can, at great effort, summon up some "chi" that gives him higher DEX. (This is just an example, so please don't point out better ways to do this, I am just trying to put it in some context. ) I decide to buy an extra 15 points of DEX for 45 CP. I then go to put a naked modifier on that DEX to reflect the "great effort", so I buy a Naked Modifier: "Naked Modifier: Costs END Only To Activate (+1/4); Costs Endurance (-1/2), Increased Endurance Cost (x2 END; -1/4) for up to 45 Active Points" (That is what I got out of Hero Designer, and I have no reason to think that it is incorrect.) My question is: I start out by paying full price for the 15 points of DEX (45 points). Then, I put a Modifier on it that not only costs me END, it costs me TWICE the END. The only "benefit" is that it only costs me that END when I first activate it. According to Hero Designer, which, again, I believe to be correct, this costs me 6 points. Now if I just buy the Power: "+15 DEX; Increased Endurance Cost (x2 END; -1/2), Costs Endurance (Only Costs END to Activate; -1/4)" It costs me 26 points, which seems pretty reasonable. Now I am not writing this to question how Hero Designer works, or I would have put it in that forum. I am trying to understand how the Naked Modifier works, and why it costs points to add a Limitation to something. What is the underlying thing I am missing that makes this make sense? Thanks in advance, Hal Owen

Re: Ohmygod! SirViss, This is not in any way your fault, and no apology in necessary. As one of the first people to tweak this guy, I must say that I am sorry if the thread I started about his initial posts led to any of this. (On the other hand, after the first couple of posts when he was chastising Steve for 'closing his threads', without taking a second to read the answers or look into the board policies, I kind of figured he was a loose cannon. ) In any case, if having him post a few rambles here kept him from having a negative impact on your game, it was well worth it. For myself, I would rather find out sooner than later that someone was this argumentative and hard to reach. Hopefully, he will take some time to reflect, actually read the rules and some of the posts here, and finally figure out what Hero is supposed to be about. I do give him credit for being energetic and willing to speak up for himself. A bit more tact would be welcome, but that is true of most of us, myself included. But, whatever you decide about having him in your game, you certainly haven't done any harm to the boards. You sent him here to learn something, and maybe he did, or at least will. If nothing else, he may figure out that you aren't doing things 'wrong', after he sees how many people agree with you. Hal Owen

Re: Need help with my PC Being serious for a moment . . . I think that there is a factor in the "book legal" vs. "GM allowed" debate that has not been given the attention it deserves. (Insert quote about power and responsibility here) I have no idea how aware of Hero the general RPG populace is. I also have no idea how aware those who know about Hero are of this message board. However, since The Hero System can be quite complex, and it would be normal for new GM's and players to seek out some information online, there may be more people looking here than we think. Based on that, bringing up the concept that the GM defines what is legal for his campaign in nearly every thread that concerns the legality of a construct is quite proper. I understand that there is a such a thing as "book legal", and that you can have a perfectly valid discussion of what is and is not. But, I would be horrified to think that the one time someone asked about some disgusting piece of munchkinism that they were trying to get past their fledgling GM, someone would reply with a simple "It is book legal." Just because, that post would probably be printed off and nailed to their GM's door like Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses. After all, the greatest thing a munchkin can ever find is something "official" saying that what he wants to do is okay. I am not saying that every response on the boards concerning rules should have some sort of mandatory warning label on it. I am just saying that there is nothing wrong with someone bringing up the GM approval topic. Other than Steve's posts and the faq's, the posts here could hardly be considered any sort of 'official' interpretation of the Hero system. But that doesn't mean that someone could try to use them that way, if they helped to prove their point. So, while I am not trying to suggest that we should in any way edit ourselves or not discuss weird, wild, or barely-legal builds here (why does that sound like something concerning porn?), I am just saying that anyone who feels like it has the right to interject the "Only if your GM allows it." warning. That way, if for some perverse reason the only thread on this board that a newbie GM looked at happened to be the one his player started, he would have a reminder to say: "Wait a minute! I don't have to let you do it this way. Let's try to come up with something a little more balanced." Okay, that's it, back to teasing people. Hey Rage, your shoe's untied! Made you look! Hal Owen.

Re: Need help with my PC And to think that I always believed there would never be a practical use for the "you know what" system. Look how quickly it took care of this thread. Hal Owen

Re: Need help with my PC Dr. A, I actually meant it as something of a compliment. I may be recommending his own system to him. Either that or this is just Mightbec or RFK's latest romp. However, if Greywolf2001ca is entirely serious in his questions, comments, and responses, the link I provided may very well be exactly what he is looking for. It is a unique game system for those who prefer things that aren't so "abstract". After all, most of the values, at least as far as I can remember, are derived from other in-game values, and/or real-world data. Hal Owen.

Re: Need help with my PC Greywolf2001ca, It seems as if you do not really find some of the basic concepts of the Hero System to your liking. Based on your posts, here is a game system that you may find more suitable: http://philippe.tromeur.free.fr/hybrid.htm It is quite good at handling things in a more detailed way than Hero, and you may find the author's style more engaging as well. Best wishes, Hal Owen.

Re: Villain Summary Charts/Tables In Books Steve, Even though it is more work, you might want to consider keeping some sort of Master List of Villains here on the site. You could take the same information you already have, and just add a column for which book they came from. Not only would it be handy for us, it may help you sell more books. It is possible that a GM who needs a "450-point Energy Blasting Alien villain" for an upcoming scenario, might buy the book that this character is featured in. But unless he has time to go to the local store and thumb through all the books, he may not know this villain exists. If no one on staff has time for this project, there are probably people on the board who both own all the books and wouldn't mind scanning in the information. Or if you guys could post it in it's raw form, there would be people happy to organize it into a spreadsheet format and send it back for you to put up. Just an idea.

Re: Does anyone know where I can get... For more information on Heromachine, you may want to check out this thread: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18912